Re:Get the definition right (Score 1)

Most web applications are doing the same thing functionally as the forms-based COBOL business applications that you rail against, except that now those very same forms-based business applications "run on the Web" with a prettier UI.

Sure, the skill set required to make a forms-based business app run properly on the web (tolerant of JScript missing, full use of CSS, leveraging XMLHttpRequest() for better interactivity, etc.) is important; but what I worry about is not that the app fails to work well or properly under [some platform].[some browser].[some config], but rather that the basic *functionality* of apps seems to have been taking a back seat to Web UI frenzy.

For example, where does the Google rubber hit the road? It ain't the UI, it's the down-and-dirty code, running on the server farms. Not HTML, CSS, Javascript, XSL, PHP, ASP, JSP, and SQL.

You say you once were a C coder, so you understand what I'm saying.